Thursday, May 29, 2008

I read an article yesterday about Dunkin Donuts pulling an ad with Rachael Ray where she is wearing what appears to be a shredded kaffiyeh. The ad was pulled due to an article by Fox's right-wing commentator Michelle Malkin in which she stated, "''The kaffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad...'' Speaking of being clueless! I have to respond. Attention is always paid to poor, simple Muslim women who are forced to wear hijab and be beaten by their husbands. (Okay, I'm being facetious because this is clearly not the case.) However, when one visits North Africa and the Middle East, as I have, one of the first things that one notices is that both men and women cover their head (thus the derogatory "raghead" comments). Men often wear either a red or black kaffiyeh to symbolize whether or not they have been on Hajj. It is true that you can often see men wearing kaffiyehs who are militants, but wearing a kaffiyeh is not a sign of militancy. If anything, the ad should have been pulled on the basis that a shredded kaffiyeh is disrespectful to Arab culture because it looks like the shredding of tradition. Absurd, right? Well, so are Malkin's remarks. Hey, I have an idea! Maybe rather than worrying about a Dunkin Donuts commercial, maybe Malkin should concentrate on trying to figure out a good way to get our economy out of the toilet and to bring our troops home from Iraq. She should stick to the things she knows, rather than stereotyping an entire ethnicity based on a piece of clothing. Of course, being on Fox News, the only thing that she probably knows is ignorance so maybe she should bother to educate herself by travelling to the Middle East, or heaven forbid, read a book, rather than insulting us all with her idiocy. After all, the U.S. has bigger problems than donuts and scarves.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

I caucused in a livestock arena! Well, I just got back from the democratic caucus and it was utter mayhem. I was running late anyway because Noah had a playdate right after I got back from work. I swung by the house and picked Erik up. It took 45 minutes from our house to get into the Livestock Arena at the fairgrounds (ordinarily it would take about 7-10 minutes). Parking was a disaster and it hadn't even started snowing yet. There were 2,218 people who showed up and the vast majority were for Obama. (I guess the other stations were insane too, and Abe and Jakes was shut down by the fire marshal and the remaining people had to be sent elsewhere. The doors were supposed to be locked and the polling was supposed to begin at 7:00. Finally, at about 8:15 they got started. It took about an hour and it took much longer to get there and in the building than it did for the caucus to take place. It was a pretty cool experience. For anyone who doesn't know how a caucus works because the one today is the first one that we've ever had in Kansas, here's how it goes:

You go in the door and find out where your candidates supporters are gathering. You find a group of people to join and gather a group of 25. Everyone who goes in hands in a ticket. The tickets are gathered and counted to get a total number of people. After that, representatives of the candidates, in our case, elected local officials, make short speeches as to why you should vote for their candidate. (By this point, it was getting very hot and people were getting restless.) Then, since it was apparent that Obama supporters were the vast majority, they only counted Kucinich, Clinton, Richardson, and Edwards (note that several of these candidates dropped out, but they still had supporters.) To be considered a viable candidate, a candidate must get 15% of the vote. Clinton got 352 while Obama got 1,144 so she barely got 15%. Then, the supporters of the non-viable candidates "realign" and pick one of the viable candidates and delegates are awarded based on those percentages. For our station, Obama got 9 delegates and Clinton got 2.

It looks like the state as a whole is going to go to Obama, possibly because of his ties to the state. I haven't looked at the national race since I got home, but it really wasn't even a contest tonight. It was hot and miserable and I'm glad I wasn't supporting one of the non-viable candidates because Erik, Noah, and I were ready to get out of there. Noah was very patient; I think more patient than Erik who tends to get bored and destructive. Noah flirted with a pretty girl who was part of our group and kept himself pretty well entertained. He's such a pimp! Anyhoo, the process was exhausting, but very rewarding. I think I'm going to go to bed early and sleep my caucus off.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Alright, we are all getting a refund, but no tax increase.Is he pulling the money out of his ass?Quit clapping douchebags, he hasn’t improved anything in the last eight years, why would he start now.What is going on?Why the one-sided clapping and all of the veto threats?Does he think we are all stupid?Apparently so.There is clearly a concerted effort by Republicans to stand up and give an ovation every time he smirks.It is very annoying.I am so sick of the clapping.Wow,he just did this thing that looked just like Barty Crouch Jr.Very snakelike.NCLB, yes everyone’s worse off than before.I wouldn’t call it an improvement at all.Faith-based initiatives? Oh yes, just what we need, a Bush’s Christian style faithbi, what are they going to teach kid’s to send other kid’s off to war and then kill innocent people under the pretext of weapon’s of mass destruction. Americans don’t want to buy thing’s made in the U.S., why should we start?Colombia, purveyors’does he mean perverts?False populism, like he just started off his speech with?Quit clapping!!!Find new jobs, except all of the jobs are overseas, kind of like tax cuts with no tax increases.Wow, people on both sides of the aisle don’t look like they’re doing very well.NUCLEAR, not nukuler.Clean technology, China isn’t a developing country, derr.Obama quit clapping or I’m not going to your caucus.Having a free ride hasn’t been a problem these last seven years.Hilary doesn’t look like she having a good night.Yes, half of our engineers are from India.Moral boundaries?This from this man.He worries about fetuses, but has no qualms about electrocuting mentally disabled people or bombing Iraqi children.Ethical medical research, all life, I guess he only cares about Americans.No cloning?I guess he better declare war on yeast and sponges.Activist judges, look at the supreme court?Charitable choice, yikes.Mary Landrieu, good for you, you didn’t stand up

8:33Of course, we can’t afford Medicare and benefits, deficits, etc.We could fund these programs indefinitely using the money that we spend before breakfast in Iraq

Immigration- He just completely contradicted himself, enforcement yet allow immigrants in.Republicans aren’t clapping for his immigration policy either.Advancing liberty yet regressing it at home?I think Bush must be an Islamic extremist under the guise of being a Christian, that would certainly explain his tactics.Bush doesn’t

Bush just confirmed that he is a terrorist, evil men imposing their violent rule that’s him.The military guys in uniform aren’t hardly clapping, they only did when they noticed the cameras on them.Other military guy isn’t even clappingThey do not look happy.That makes me want to cry.Afghani children aren’t going to school a report just said that school attendance is down in Afghanistan b/c of the resurgence of violence.

Iraq, apparently he doesn’t understand the concept of liberty.Whoa, the soldiers are not happy?What an insult to them, to lie right in front of them.No, troops have our gratitude, Bush has their blood on his hands.Iraqis are fighting the U.S.’s fight, and they don’t have a choice.They can fight or die, but if it weren’t for Bush and Cheney, they wouldn’t be doing either, even under Saddam.Actually, I OBL said that al-Qaeda was growing stronger, solemn pledge that they would have everything they need.Five years too late, wouldn’t you say?He plans to keep troops there as long as he is in office.Marines have come home and not been replaced?That doesn’t do Derek and our family much good, does it?Why is he laughing about a drawdown?He’s not giddy; I think he’s drunk.I guess it’s not his life that’s on the line.Government sharing with the provinces, aka oil companies.Mission has been difficult, but if we don’t succeed, how will we convert all Iraqis to Christianity?Perhaps he should concentrate on Darfur and Pakistan if he is worried about terrorist bases, not Iran. Pervez Musharraf, Benazir Bhutto anyone?Palestinians may have elected Abbas, but they also elected Hamas and that should be respected.Poor Michael Chertoff, he just keeps getting thinner and thinner.Soon he will just be a skeleton sitting in the gallery.E ron, no I ran.Oooh, Iran is so scary!They are just like Iraq, with all their weapons of mass destruction, oh, wait… Iraq didn’t have any.Iran did come clean about it’s nuclear program, you just didn’t like their answer

8:54Lawful and effective measures to protect our country.You mean like illegal wiretaps?Spying on citizens?Yeah, real legal, effective, perhaps, but at what cost?The terrorists have won.Wow, half the gallery is sitting down.Compassion, conscience, not really hallmarks of his administration.He doesn’t help Darfur, yet he condemns the genocide there.Farming in the developing world?Food and supplies aren’t the problem.Distribution is, and do you think agricultural lobbies in the U.S. are going to allow competition.They can’t afford to, and the corporate farmers aren’t going to allow the competition.Funding for veterans, too little too late?When Iraqi war veterans stop coming to soup kitchens, then perhaps they will have done something.Don’t talk to me until then.Bush is still smirking.Support for military families, um yeah, shouldn’t they already be doing that?If you want to honor military families, end the war and bring our loved ones home.Bush doesn’t trust the people, he just hopes they are hysterical enough and have a flag tied around their eyes so that they can’t see him for what he is.Goddess help us.

It’s over!Douchebag’s last State of the Union.Unless he declares himself dictator.

Come on Kathleen Sebelius, don’t make us look like a bunch of yokels!Wow, go liberal media.They are being really critical of the speech.As Bob Schieffer said, “…not one for the history books.”